Thursday, 26 April 2012

Toilet 'Scam'med In UP

Its has always been intriguing to know and Indian ministers have always been creative enough to invent new scams. Its something we shouldn't be proud of but we have no option but live with . The CWG scam, 2G scam, Adarsh scam would be unhappy and disappointed as there is a new enterant, a rather stenchy one: Toilet Scam -- A case of sheer over-reporting.This was quite expected,' itna paisa khaya hai toh kahi se to nikalega', hence the 'toilet' scam. It happened at the home of all scams, and one of the most densly populated states, Uttar Pradesh (UP) and this time a Rs.2,900cr was parted with. The money was slowly relished over the past decade. The state was to construct 1.71cr toilets in order to end open defecation in India under the Total Sanitation Campaign ( TSC ).But the household census data revealed that only 55 lakh household in UP had access to toilets. Which means 1.6cr toilets are 'nowheretobefound'. TSC was launched in 1999 in all states and promised to end open defeacation by 2017. It follows a principle of “low to no subsidy” where a nominal subsidy in the form of incentive is given to rural poor households for construction of permanent toilets in their households.TSC reports VS Actual Census:

TSC reports

Actual Census

TSC reports, there are only 17.50% households without toilets in rural UP.

Census reports that more than 78% of the households do not have access to toilets

TSC reports that two districts in UP, Lakhimpur Kheri and Farrukhabad, where 100% households have toilets.

Wheras, census says that 81.7% and 76.10% households are without toilets in the Lakhimpur Kheri and Farrukhabad districts respectively.

TSC data says that 89.84% of the households in Lucknow have a toilet

But the census figures say that only 65.6% of households in Lucknow have toilets on their establishments

So, now its the state government of UP which has defeated the motto of the TSC scheme. Statistical data shows that in the last decade, of all the people defecating in open in India, UP alone accounts for 39.05%. In actual terms, 35.31 lakh households are defecating in the open in the state of which 93% of them are in rural areas.